Monthly Archives: March 2015

The Daily Beat – Since the inception of the current conflict, the Mexican government set one main goal for its war on drugs: to reduce drug-related crime in Mexico and return the rule of law to those areas corrupted and terrorized by drug gangs. And on that crucial front, it has failed.

Skift – Mexico’s medical regulatory agency has closed the operating rooms of a Baja California hospital where a young Australian woman died following cosmetic procedure on her buttocks. The agency said that the doctor who performed the procedure is under investigation for possible medical negligence. It identified him as Victor Manuel Ramirez Hernandez.

BBC – A Mexican police officer has been suspended after a video posted on YouTube showed a man in uniform killing a crocodile with a machine gun at a water treatment plant in Sinaloa. Crocodiles are a protected species in Mexico.

EFE – The Mexican government announced that it will require airlines always to have two authorized crewmembers in the cockpit after a Germanwings copilot who was left alone in the cockpit locked the pilot out and then crashed the plane in the French Alps.

El Dario – Sony DADC, the manufacturing division of Sony, will close its production and distribution of DVDs, CDs and Blu-Ray in Tlalnepantla, State of Mexico, and its office Costa Rica due to the current economic situation and the challenges facing the production of physical media.

RPP – Mexican cultural institutions announced the launch of a radio series and the publication of a book to commemorate the 101 anniversary of the birth of poet Octavio Paz (1914-1998), winner of the 1990 Nobel Prize for Literature.

Supporters of fired journalist Carmen Aristegui delivering signed protests of her dismissal at the MVS radio station.(Edgard Garrido/Reuters)

By Elisabeth Malkin / New York Times

When Carmen Aristegui, Mexico’s most famous radio personality, was abruptly fired this month, nobody expected her to go quietly. But anger over her dismissal has been rising steadily, and it has turned up the heat in this country’s charged political atmosphere.

Conspiracy theories have abounded since a dispute between Aristegui and her employer, MVS Communications, ended in her departure. She has become an emblem of press freedom under siege, and social media has lighted up with demands for her return to the airwaves.

Even her critics, who point to a lack of reportorial rigor in many of her stories, argue that her dismissal removed one of the few broadcast journalists in Mexico who openly challenge authority. Many journalists contend that Aristegui’s case is part of a broader attempt by the government to check aggressive news coverage.

“Today we have radio that is less plural than it was two weeks ago,” said Raúl Trejo, a media expert at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. “I have been very critical. But I think her voice is very healthy for Mexican society.”

Sentido Comun – Fiber Terrafina has completed the sale of $101 million in reserves of land and industrial buildings as part of its strategy to recycle its capital. The company will use most of the proceeds for the payment of debt.

Sentido Comun – The Mexican government initiated the process of selling nine sugar mills that were expropriated more than a decade ago. It expects to gain at least 8,100 million pesos ($538 million) from the sale.

Informador – The University Council of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) unanimously approved the creation of a degree in ecology, which will be taught at the National School of Advanced Studies Unit in Morelia, Michoacán.

Pulso – Women’s prisons in Mexico are parallel kingdoms ruled by mafias which abuses, it extorts and even prostitutes prisoners who mostly live in overcrowded conditions, with large gaps in hygiene and nutrition, including constant violations of their rights.

So says a report released Sunday by state independent National Human Rights Commission, which analyzed the conditions in 77 of the 102 prisons in the country that are home to a total of 12,690 women.

La Jornada – The national economy is “lethargic” said the Institute for Industrial Development and Economic Activity in its first analysis of official indicators of 2015. Primary sectors of mining, manufacturing and trade are “going down”, while the service sector is moving at a very slow pace.

The central bank said it is “closely watching” any change in Fed’s policy and its impact on the exchange rate.

By Juan Montes / Wall Street Journal

Mexico’s central bank stood pat on rates Thursday, as widely expected, adopting a cautious stance ahead of a potential rate increase in the U.S.

The Bank of Mexico left the overnight interest-rate target unchanged at a record low 3%. The central bank has cut rates four times in the last two years to support a sluggish economy.

But increasing expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve will raise rates in coming months for the first time since 2008 has led Mexico’s central bank to start considering a tightening of monetary policy to support the peso.

Weather – Mexico’s Colima volcano gave quite a show this week, erupting two times in the same morning. Volcano Discovery says Colima is one of the most active volcanoes in Central America and has the potential for danger, due to its high level of activity.